This was not unexpected: As our Kevin Krause noted late last month, the 22-year-old who also goes by the moniker Juan Joel Pagan was expected to become the first North Texan prosecuted under a new law President Barack Obama signed on February 14, 2012. The law says it's a federal offense for a person to "knowingly aim the beam of a laser pointer at an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States." The crime is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

The criminal complaint filed in federal court on January 29 repeats much of what Dallas police said one day earlier, when Santodomingo was arrested by Dallas officers for shining a light into the cockpit of DPD's Air One, which, at the time Dallas police, was flying over a southeast Dallas neighborhood looking for car-burglary suspects. As the chopper was passing over the 7700 block of Lake June Road, between S. Buckner Boulevard and N. Jim Miller Road, Santodomingo repeatedly aimed his high-powered laser light at the chopper.

“The intensity of the light obscured the vision of the pilot and impaired the pilot’s ability to control the aircraft,” said the federal affidavit.

It didn't take long for the pilot to tell officers on the ground where they light had come from. When they got there, said Dallas police, Santodomingo wearing only “dark blue short style underwear.” And at first he denied knowing what they were talking about. But eventually, says the federal affidavit, “Santodomingo admitted to pointing the green laser light at the helicopter … to see how far it would go.” Officers finally found the pointer in the front pocket of a suitcase.